


The Breaking Point

by HardTack (volatileSoloist)



Series: He's My Favorite [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Abduction, Bad times are ahead, Broken Bones, Drugged Sex, Fingerfucking, Gaster Blaster Papyrus (Undertale), Headcanons about soul magic, Kidnapping, Learning how to empathy, M/M, Mild Gore, Most of this will take place on the Surface, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Photoshop Flowey (Undertale), Sensitive bones, Thorny vines, Torture, Verbal Abuse, Very offhanded descriptions of minor character death, human death, i guess?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-09-15 14:57:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 11,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16935372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/volatileSoloist/pseuds/HardTack
Summary: Flowey has finally attained the godlike status he deserves, and with his newfound powers, he can show everyone the true meaning of this world. But, just suppose, how lonely it would be to be the last being in the world? Even evil loves company.Deltarune got me back into the mood for Undertale! If you've read my previous fic"All There in the Name", you know what kind of shit I'm about. This fic is actually a sequel to that one, so go back and read it or some elements of this story may not make sense! Also, make sure to read the warnings and tags, which will be updated as future chapters come out.





	1. Chapter 1

As the dark red of human blood spilled once more onto the ground before the barrier, Flowey rejoiced in the sheer thrill of victory.

Of course, he’d felt some sense of this before, in many of his playthroughs, but it had been dulled by his lack of a SOUL. Now, with six SOULs—no, _seven_ —he was almost overwhelmed by how much he could feel.

So many emotions at once. Pride, accomplishment, excitement, anticipation. Before today, he’d only been able to mirror those feelings, basking in the pale shadows he found. And even then, since he’d started running out of new and interesting ways to mess with the inhabitants of the Underground, he’d realized he was feeling those less and less.

He’d been on the verge of total apathy when _that_ human had fallen into the underground, and suddenly, so many things he’d only dreamed of seemed to be in his grasp. Dreams of finally killing the old, foolish king! Dreams of ultimate power! And some part of him, the one that he’d buried deep down, dreamt of the surface.

Now, thanks to that human, he had two out of three, and there was nothing stopping him from sweeping out into the surface world, and making every living being on its face experience the _true_ meaning of suffering.

They’d certainly put up a fight, that human. He could understand why, given what he remembered of the world now just behind him. He turned and gazed at the barrier, shimmering in the twilight. With so much power in him—so much DETERMINATION— it looked incredibly fragile. He could break it with a single touch.

...

And yet...

For the first time in a long while, Flowey felt a sting of sentimentality. He’d been in the Underground for so long. He couldn’t just leave it behind to go kill all the humans.

No. He’d kill everyone down here, first. Just for old times’ sake.

Flowey shut off the light from his screen, and the chamber was plunged into darkness. He used a vine to open the door just a crack and cried out, in the king’s voice, “Guards! The human is dead, and I have broken the barrier!”

The voice echoed in the halls of the castle for a minute before he heard the quick, excited pattering of several sets of feet.

“Your Majesty! Is it true?”

“Oh my god, can it be?”

“I want to see!”

 _Can’t have that._ “No!” Flowey imitated, making the voice a little more hoarse. “I need to make sure it’s safe for us... and... I don’t want you to see me like this...” He put just a hint of horror and shame into the tone to make it more believable.

“Oh,” the voices said, suddenly filled with sorrow and understanding. _Gullible idiots._ Then, one asked, “Should we get the rest of the citizens ready to leave?”

 _An excellent suggestion._ “Yes. Send them through, one at a time. No more than that, do you understand?” He paused for a moment before justifying, "It'll make the migration easier."

There was the clanking of armor as the guards presumably stood at attention. “Yes sir!” They chorused, and Flowey closed the door again with trembling vines. He felt so excited.

He felt so alive.

——

“Nyeh! Come on, Sans! We’re going to see the _surface_ , and you’re dragging your feet?”

Papyrus stared down at Sans, who gave him a sleepy smile. “I dunno, bro. Getting me up in the middle of the night and making me walk from Snowdin to New Home is a pretty big _feat_ already.”

“Ughhh, Sans!” Papyrus sighed, before shaking his head. “You know what? I will allow your puns, for nothing can ruin the Great Papyrus’s mood today!”

“Heh, excited?”

Papyrus laughed gleefully. “Incredibly so! I’ll finally be able to drive a racecar! And there will be so many humans to be friends with! As a matter of fact, when I see the small human, I’m going to give them a big hug to thank them for letting us all out!”

Sans scratched his vertebrae, his expression suddenly unreadable. “Yeah, well... they might be busy, you know? They’re probably gonna be the ambassador for monsters, and so I bet they’ve already gone down to the other humans to let them know we’re coming.”

Papyrus scoffed. “Too busy for a hug from the Great Papyrus? Ha, that will be the day! _I_ bet--”

Before Papyrus could say anything else, a pair of guards stopped them. With a start, the two brothers realized they were already at the doorway to the barrier chamber. Sans grinned at Papyrus. “You ready, Pap?”

“I was born ready!” Papyrus shouted, and the guards lifted their spears to allow him access. This was _it_. He was going to see the surface! Absolutely ecstatic, he rushed into the chamber without a second thought. Then, the door closed behind him, and he was immediately surrounded by darkness.

Well, that was odd.

“Wowie, I can’t see a thing! Did you know the surface would be so dark, Sans?”

A brief pause. “Sans?” When no reply came, Papyrus felt the slightest trickle of anxiety, before it was stifled with knowing frustration. “Is this one of your pranks, Sans?”

“Howdy!” A voice that was not Sans’ answered.

Immediately Papyrus felt more at ease, because he _knew_ that voice! “Hello, Flowey!” Papyrus said cheerfully, attempting to stumble toward the source of the sound. His path was somewhat impeded by the large amounts of powdery sand on the ground. “Do you know where the light switch is in here?”

“Sure do, friend! Let me shed a little light for you.”

There was a short, buzzing click, and then a large rectangle of staticky light appeared, hovering high above the chamber floor. When the static resolved, Papyrus could see Flowey, who appeared to be much larger than he’d been the last time Papyrus had hung out with him.

“How’s that?” Flowey giggled, his appearance flickering in and out slightly.

“Very tall,” Papyrus said almost meekly, suddenly overcome with a mild sense of vertigo. Then he shook his head, and he smiled brightly again. “I didn’t know flowers could get growth spurts! Congratulations, my friend!”

“Hee hee! Thank you, Papyrus. That’s not the only thing that’s changed about me, either!”

A beat of silence passed, and when Flowey didn’t elaborate, Papyrus cleared his throat and politely changed the subject. “Er, where is everyone? Have they already gone up to the surface?”

Flowey chuckled again, but this time, there was a dark undertone to the sound, as though Flowey had two voices, and one was pitched much lower than the other. “Nope! They’re all _right here!_ ”

The amount of light from above increased, and when Papyrus looked around confusedly, the first thing he saw was...

_Oh my god._

There were piles of dust _everywhere_ , carpeting the cave floor, so much so that it reached up to just below Papyrus’ ankles. He felt as though he couldn't breathe, overcome with an intense wave of fear, then dizziness and nausea, and the world seemed to shift and pitch.

“Whoa there, friend!” He heard Flowey say, and something large brushed up against him from behind, steadying him before he could collapse. “You don’t look so good, hee hee!”

“Flowey, I—” Papyrus took a shaky breath in, feeling tears begin to prickle at the edge of his eye sockets. “I—I don’t understand! What _happened_ here?”

Flowey laughed again. “I wouldn’t worry about that. You should be more concerned about what’s going to happen to _you._ ”

Whatever had been supporting Papyrus from behind suddenly wrapped tightly around his waist, and he let out a panicked yelp as he was lifted high into the air. He squirmed in its grasp, panicking when he noticed said grasp was an enormous green arm, covered in leaves and thorns, and bigger than a tree trunk by far.

He squirmed frantically in the iron grip, trying to get free, before he abruptly slowed and connected the dots. Even in his horrified state of grief and terror, Papyrus was as quick as ever at solving puzzles, and it was easy to put two and two together. Teeth chattering, he asked, “O-oh! Is this one of the, um, new changes too?” He tried to force a laugh, wiping away the beginnings of tears. _Just don’t look down._

Flowey leaned in closer with a knowing smile. “I’ve changed in a lot of ways, friend. Did you know that I didn’t used to have a SOUL?”

Papyrus felt a foreboding shiver run up his spine. “N-no?”

“Well, Papyrus... now I have _seven_.”

There was a cavern-shaking rumble and a blinding flash of light, and what had been previously hidden in the dark was now fully illuminated. The first thing Papyrus saw was an enormous face with massive toothy jaws and two sets of bulging eyes. Above that, a writhing, swirling mass of vines with razor-sharp, blood-red thorns framed a giant television screen, flicking with static and split-second images Papyrus could barely catch. Above that, was a pulsing mass of wet, fleshy gray tubes that tethered Flowey to the ceiling of the cavern.

“Hush, hush,” Flowey said, a smile in his voice, and Papyrus realized that he was screaming. When he found that he couldn't stop, Flowey's grip around him shifted, and then he started rapidly shaking Papyrus around in his grasp until he had to clamp his jaws shut from the nausea. As his head spun, a thinner vine lifted his chin, and when he could focus his vision, he saw with a start that the TV screen was staring back at him with a cartoonish but horrifying grin. “When your best friend gets a new look, you’re supposed to compliment them. Aren’t you happy for me, Papyrus? I’m like a god now!”

Making a valiant effort to stop hyperventilating, Papyrus took a deep, shuddering breath in. When he felt like he could speak again without screaming, all he could faintly say was, “Big.”

Flowey laughed raucously. “Yes, Papyrus. Bigger is definitely better!” He stuck out his tongue, and from beneath the television screen, the toothy maw split open to reveal another giant, thorny vine. “Seven human SOULs will do that to you!”

That snapped Papyrus out of his daze. He looked about nervously, and upon seeing the unbroken barrier, he asked “W-well, if you have the human SOULs, then... why is the barrier still up? They told us that we were free, that Asgore—”

Flowey let out a humorless laugh. “Asgore, nothing. He’s dead, Papyrus. I killed him.”

Suddenly Papyrus felt dizzy again. “Y-you killed him? You can’t have, I—” _I know you wouldn’t do that, but..._ here he was, surrounded by giant piles of dust. “...b-but he was big, and fuzzy, and k-kind, and—”

Papyrus let out a squeak as the massive hand grabbing him suddenly squeezed hard. “ _Asgore_ ,” Flowey growled, “was a fool who died as he lived: a pathetic disgrace. It was merciful for me to put him out of his misery.”

As Flowey loomed above him, his expression hardened, and the hand began to squeeze even harder, testing the limits of what Papyrus’s bones could withstand. He let out a strangled groan as he heard them creak.

Flowey smiled. “I think it’s high time I do the same to you, huh?”

Papyrus’s eye lights shrunk to pinpricks as he scrabbled desperately at the hard, glossy vine constricting him. He babbled, panickedly, “N-no—please, Flowey, I—we’re friends, you’re my f-friend—”

Flowey scoffed, and the sheer dismissiveness in his tone was enough to make Papyrus’ heart break.

Just as he was sure he himself would shatter, and that this was the end...

The hand loosened.

——

Having SOULs _sucked_. Sure, it had been fun feeling emotions for a bit, but now, watching his favorite toy Papyrus squirm and beg for his life, he was feeling things like _remorse_ and _guilt_. Flowey groaned internally: He hadn’t had issues with killing any of the monsters before Papyrus came in; he never had issues with killing _Papyrus_ before this.

But as the SOULs inside him wriggled, and Papyrus pleaded, Flowey couldn’t find it in himself to refuse. With the strange and foreign feeling of fondness filling him, he let his grip become slack.

“I suppose,” Flowey said thoughtfully, not caring if Papyrus was listening or not, “Being all alone at the end of the world wouldn’t be much fun.”

Papyrus had been a steadfast companion for all those timelines that would have otherwise been so utterly boring. If Flowey could find a use for for that banal skeleton before, he could find a use for him now.

Ah yes, he could find a use. Because obviously he wouldn’t keep him around otherwise. Flowey didn’t _get_ sentimental.

Refocusing on Papyrus, who was trembling and rattling in his grasp, Flowey gave him a bright smile, and felt a warmth inside him as Papyrus gave him a weak, teary smile back.

“I kn-knew you were good,” Papyrus croaked, trembling.

Flowey would’ve laughed, but before he could, the door to the chamber burst open with a **BANG** and a brilliant cyan explosion. When the dust cleared, there was—ugh, _Sans_. His eye was glowing with rage, but his expression immediately changed to something like fear—and there, that was another great, new thing—as he gazed up at Flowey’s greatness.

“Well,” Flowey let that laugh loose, a loud, chaotic noise that shook the cavern. “I don’t know about that.”

It was all too easy to send a vine the size of a ship mast sailing down toward the smiley trashbag, fracturing and shaking the ground as it missed him only by inches when Sans teleported a few feet to the left.

“No!” Papyrus yelled, beginning to squirm again.

Flowey sent out a whole thicket of vines, anyway. He didn’t bother seeing whether or not the hit landed, because he had such immense power now that they could basically run on autopilot. He shambled toward the barrier, Papyrus in hand, and stuck his free arm through it. The barrier shuddered and trembled around it, but allowed the passage.

“Well,” Flowey said with a wicked grin, “It’d be fun killing you again, Sans, but I’d rather just leave you here.”

Both Papyrus and Sans simultaneously cried out, “No!” but Flowey was already half-way through the barrier. He was almost completely through when—

 **THUD.** Flowey heard a muted yelp from the other side of the barrier as Papyrus was pressed hard against it, as though it were plate-glass.

 _Oh, of course!_ Flowey moved back into the cavern, narrowly dodging the beam of one of those infernal blasters, and he grinned at Papyrus. “I forgot, you can’t cross through. Boy, that sure is inconvenient!”

Sans fired a barrage at the arm holding Papyrus, but it barely singed the thick carapace.

“Well, I’ll just have to let you borrow one of the SOULs!”

Papyrus balked. “W-what? No!”

“Oh yes,” Flowey grinned. He concentrated for a moment, and the SOULs flickered outside of him. “Let’s see. Should I give you the orange one? It would match your outfit pretty well, but that one’s for bravery, and you screamed like a wimp when you saw me, so—”

A row of bones swiped across the ceiling, attempting to sever Flowey’s grip on it, and it only wobbled him a bit, but all of a sudden, it _hurt_ , and that was unusual. His karma damage was a bitch, even in this form.

“—I could give you the blue SOUL, I know how much you love blue magic, Papyrus—”

“Please, don’t!” Papyrus yelled, banging uselessly at Flowey’s iron grip. “Don’t take me away, p-please—”

Finally, it came to Flowey. “Oh I know! Green, for _kindness_ , it’s so obvious. And,” Flowey said, smiling fondly at Papyrus, “I bet you’ll look great in my color!” He gave Papyrus a wink and a cheeky, “Try not to melt!” before grabbing the SOUL and shoving it into Papyrus’s chest cavity.

“ _Stop!_ ” Sans screamed, voice cracking, as he reached out his magic to try and turn Flowey’s SOULs blue, but he only managed to grab two of them before bright green light engulfed Papyrus... who screamed and screamed like he was on fire. Geez.

“Don’t be such a baby, Pa—whoa!” Flowey actually jolted as juts of bone began to spike out of Papyrus’s head and spine, sharp enough to scratch at the tough vine, and he began to grow larger in Flowey’s grasp, and the shape of his head began to split and elongate into something like one of the Sans’s blasters, and—

This was getting weird. Better to leave now so he could get the soul out of Papyrus as soon as possible. He turned toward the exit, not bothering to look at Sans, and called out, “Welp, good enough. So long, trashbag!”

And with that, Flowey pushed through the barrier, taking Papyrus with him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is kind of an experiment? I published it to gauge if there'd be any audience for it. So if you like it, and want more, please **let me know** , and I'll try and get it out on a consistent schedule! If you don't like it, tough! I'm gonna keep writing it, but probably at a slower interval.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _He blearily blinked his sockets open, and immediate squeezed them shut again, because the bright, burning light that surrounded him caused a wave of nausea to flare up. He sagged down against whatever was holding him so tightly, and tried to will himself back into unconsciousness._  
> 
> _Whatever was holding him so tightly..._

Once, a long time ago, Papyrus had been setting up a puzzle in forest outside Snowdin. He did this all the time, of course, but that particular puzzle involved hammering a series of stakes into the ground.

Papyrus was generally very good at staying on task, but he found his mind wandering as he thought of all the ways that this particular puzzle could turn out, and how maybe if he just—

 **SMASH**.

He would’ve lost that particular phalange if Sans hadn’t been nearby. Somehow his brother managed to get the two of them back to Snowdin and to a healer fast enough to fix it back on.

But oh god, how it had _hurt_.

What Papyrus felt now, as he found himself struggling his way into consciousness, was much, _much_ worse. It was as though he had tried to nail in three different spikes, and misaimed so horribly that they all managed to end up in the back of his skull.

He blearily blinked his sockets open, and immediate squeezed them shut again, because the bright, burning light that surrounded him caused a wave of nausea to flare up. He sagged down against whatever was holding him so tightly, and tried to will himself back into unconsciousness.

Whatever was holding him so tightly...

Papyrus shot up straight and opened his eyes, and those two actions, combined with the memories flooding back to him, wrenched a long, agonized wail from him, and he strained to get free, because if he was right, then that meant—

“Well, well, look who’s awake!”

He could hardly see, what with the brilliance of the light, but when he whipped his head around to stare in the direction of the voice, he beheld the outline of a massive figure resting beside him.

“Boy, you had me worried there for a minute, Papyrus!” Something brushed against his shoulder, like the ghost of a comforting gesture.

Papyrus blinked again, and now his vision started to come into focus. What he saw was... like something out of a nightmare, but... god, that _hadn’t_ been a nightmare, had it?

Flowey stared down at him with those beady red-green eyes and a terrifying grin on his face.

No, it hadn’t been.

Flowey chuckled as Papyrus continued to stared, slack-jawed, at him. “I know you’re not made of glass, like _someone I could mention_ , but—”

 _Sans._ “Where—!” But Papyrus’ voice came out hoarse and gravely, as though he hadn’t spoken in a thousand years. He panted, cleared his throat, and tried again, because what was most important was, “Where is Sans?”

Flowey rolled his eyes. “ _That’s_ what you’re worried about?” Flowey leaned closer, peering down at him with an annoyed expression. Then, abruptly, he smiled. “If I were you, I’d be freaking out about the view, more than anything else!”

“What?” Papyrus asked, bewildered, and a vine snaked out of the ground and turned his chin to look out straight ahead of him, and to his surprise, they appeared to be perched atop a mountain. The rocky crag was occasionally littered with pieces of trash, and there was a even a map posted toward a path leading down, with the words, “Mt. Ebott Nature Trail” written above it. So, that meant that...

Now he knew why everything was so bright.

Papyrus looked further out, and was immediately struck by the fact that the mountain was so vast in height that he could see, stretching out in front of him, an expanse of land so boundless that you could’ve fit at least three Undergrounds in it. There were rolling green hills, a shimmering lake or two, and on the blue, blue horizon was a collection of tall buildings, glinting in the sun.

The _sun_.

“Ha! You should see your face, friend.” With some difficulty Papyrus tore his gaze away from the magnificent scenery before him and stared back up at Flowey, sockets wide.

“...Why?” was all he could manage to say.

Flowey blinked. “Why what?”

“Why did you... why did you bring me here?”

Flowey raised an eyebrow. “That sounds kinda ungrateful, Papyrus.”

“No,” Papyrus hurried, fearful again, “Why _just_ me? Why... k-kill all those monsters, and then take _me_?”

Flowey grinned reassuringly at him, but Papyrus wouldn’t have been able to find comfort in it if he tried. “Boy, you must be pretty rattled, huh? If it were anything else, you’d say, ‘Of course it would be me, because I am the Great Papyrus!’”

When the skeleton didn’t say anything else, Flowey winked at him. “Because you’re my favorite.”

Flowey trailed a vine across the back of his skull, as though tousling hair, and that’s when Papyrus felt it.

It... what was it? Something felt different, and he immediately tried to raise his arms up to touch his skull. When the vines holding him didn’t budge, he gazed up helplessly at Flowey. “What...?”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah! You remember how I said that I was worried about you?” Flowey repeated the action with his vine, and Papyrus shivered. “It turns out that trying to pull a human soul out of a monster has consequences. Who’d’ve thought?”

Tremulously, Papyrus asked, “What happened?”

Flowey laughed nervously. “Nothing huge. Anyway, I was more worried about damage to your soul, rather than your body, but hey, life’s always gotta throw a curveball at ya!”

Flowey loosened the coils of vine a bit, so Papyrus raised shaking hands to the back of his skull, and then immediate recoiled when he felt...

It was so absurd that Papyrus almost laughed. No wonder he’d recalled the memory about the stakes. Because now, sticking out of the back of his skull, were three short, sharp prongs of bone, rising up like a crest.

“Before you ask,” Flowey said, unbidden, “yes, it does look badass!”

“I wasn’t...” Papyrus mumbled, before he was overcome with another wave of dizziness.

“Easy does it!” Flowey piped up, rubbing his shoulder with one of the tendrils sprouting from the rocky ground. “You know what? You look like you could use a distraction, friend!” The vine hooked around his shoulder and spun him around to look at the view again. The two sat there in a shared silence, one half contemplative, and the other uncomprehending.

Suddenly, Flowey laughed. “Just two friends relaxing on a mountaintop. Brings back memories, doesn’t it, Papyrus?”

For the umpteenth time today, Papyrus stared up at Flowey, utterly confused. “What? I don’t—”

“Now now,” Flowey interrupted. “You’ve had a human soul inside of you. You’ve gotten a taste of DETERMINATION! Don’t tell me you can’t remember anything from the other timelines?”

 _Timelines_? What did that even mean? But even as he pondered, he... he suddenly was overcome with a wave of fear, stronger than anything he’d felt yet that day, but at the same time completely detached from the circumstances.

He stared up wide-eyed at Flowey, and then flinched at the dark grin his friend leveled at him.

“Hmm. Maybe you just need a reminder?”

All at once, the coil of vines around him tightened, and Papyrus started as he was suddenly lifted off the ground. He immediately began fighting to get out of Flowey’s hold, suddenly overcome with a bone-deep sense of _déja vû_ , panic coursing through him.

Flowey laughed at the sight of him. “So maybe you do remember something?” Papyrus found himself at eye-level with Flowey, that multicolored gaze boring holes into him. “Why are you so scared, Papyrus? I only want to play a game with you!”

The more Papyrus fought down the fear, the more intense it became. “A g-game?”

“Yeah!” Flowey chirped. “We can play pretend! You seem pretty stressed out,” and he paused to giggle deviously, “so if you bare your soul to me, I’ll help you _relax_.”

With those words, Papyrus felt as though he’d been plunged into freezing water. His every instinct was screaming ‘danger’ at him, and he cowered in Flowey’s grasp.

It didn’t go unnoticed. “Or,” Flowey said with a shrug, “We can just go back to an all-time classic?”

That sounded slightly more promising? “O-oh? What game is that?” Papyrus asked, feeling hope in spite of how dire everything seemed.

“Oh, you’ll love it!” Flowey tittered.

“I call it ‘Break the Skeleton!’”

Papyrus felt his eyelights go out, but Flowey took his silence as an invitation to carry on. A vine grew up into the air to wrap around Papyrus’ right arm. “There are so many ways you can break a skeleton, did you know that?”

As the vine flexed around his radius, he suddenly snapped out of his fearful paralysis. “No! No no no no no! Flowey don’t, I—”

His soul skipped a beat as the vine around his center suddenly withdrew, and he yelped as gravity took hold. He dropped only a short distance, still held by the vine curled around his arm, but winced as his shoulder joint took the stress of the fall.

“You _seem_ durable,” Flowey continued, grinning deviously, “but really, the only thing keeping you together is your magic!”

“Please, don’t, I—” Papyrus whimpered, only to cry out again as the vine holding his arm yanked, and he flew up into the air, spinning and flailing as he began to plunge down again.

Only moments before he hit the ground, he felt a pressure around his ankle and how his bone strained as a vine snatched him by it and pulled him back up.

Flowey was no less terrifying to behold from upside-down. Now he was level with one of the two pairs of giant bulging eyes, faced with the gaping jaws of Flowey’s vertical maw.

The monster laughed at the sight of him, and batted at him like a cat would a mouse, causing him to swing around in midair.

Papyrus’ head spun from dizziness, and his soul ached from fear. Flowey was _toying_ with him now, but he knew from the icy feeling deep inside him that there could be much worse to come.

And yet...

That same feeling from deep inside of him also seared with a brilliant heat.

As soon as he realized it, it _coursed_ through him, infusing every bone with its fire, and as Flowey jeered at him, he felt compelled by something deep in his soul to—

_Stand fast._

“Just get it over with!” he cried out, and Flowey froze. Papyrus grit his teeth. “If what you’re telling me is right, and that I’ve been through this before, then do your worst! It won’t knock the Great Papyrus down!”

For once, Flowey was silent, staring transfixed at him. For the longest moment, neither of them spoke; Papyrus himself was shocked at the outburst.

Then, slowly, a horrific grin spread across Flowey’s flat features. “I think... I’m gonna have _fun_ testing that out!”

All at once, the heat dissipated, leaving only an empty hollow that was rapidly refilled by fear.

And then, all of a sudden—

“What the _fuck_!”

Slowly, Flowey and Papyrus turned their heads to gaze at the crest of the hill, where a lone figure stood and gawked at the pair in abject horror.

It was around the same height as Papyrus, and roughly the same shape, but what wasn’t obscured by its heavy clothing was mostly covered with some sort of peach-pinkish material.

Papyrus had only seen one other being like this before.

It was a human, and...

“Howdy!” Flowey said, his voice ringing with excitement.

...and it was in grave danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, just wanna thank you all for the support the first chapter! Please keep letting me know your thoughts as this goes on : )
> 
> I'm gonna try to release this on a weekly basis, either on Saturdays or Sundays, so stayed tuned!
> 
> EDIT: Hey, I’m planning ahead for the first sex scene, whenever it comes, so feel free to put some suggestions as to what you’d like to see happen to our poor boy Pap, and I might add it in! I’m low on ideas bc I don’t want to rehash stuff that I’ve done, or that I’ve read other people doing. No ecto-stuff tho!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _"Flowey, don’t hurt it! It didn’t do anything wrong!”_
> 
> _“But Papyrus,” Flowey said, raising one of his hands to the side of his screen in mock-indecision. No harm in entertaining his friend for a moment. “It just threatened me! Didn’t you hear it?”_
> 
> _“B-but,” Papyrus said, straining to pull himself up out of the throng of vines and get closer to Flowey. “You don’t have to fight! What if we talk to it? And then, I’m sure we can look back on this later, and laugh about it, once we’re all friends!”_
> 
> _Flowey tutted quietly._
> 
> **Please read the new tags! This chapter is going to be a rough one.**

Flowey peered down at the human, adrenaline suddenly coursing through his veins.

“I’m Flowey,” he giggled, “your worst nightmare!”

The human took a fearful step back, hand reaching toward a pouch on the back of its belt. “Look, y-you’re a monster, right?”

Flowey tsked softly. “What gave you that impression, buddy? Was it the ‘worst nightmare’ part?” The ground on the mountain peak rumbled Flowey set down one of his hands to drag himself closer.

The human flinched. “I don’t want any trouble, man! Uh, thing? It’s not my fault you were all locked down there!” He seemed to be getting more and more defensive, which piqued Flowey’s interest. Maybe he’d get another good fight out of this one! After all, this one looked like an adult.

He thought he heard a noise from somewhere nearby, but it didn’t seem to be coming from the human, so he ignored it. He had more important things to focus on, like how invigorating it would be to kill this human. Another SOUL for his collection! “Oh, this isn’t about _that_ , silly,” Flowey said, grin stretching wide across the screen, “so don’t worry your easily-crushable little head!”

This seemed to be the last straw, and from within the pouch, the human dragged out a rugged-looking knife, all cool black steel and a sharp serrated edge. He waved it at Flowey. “Stay back, or you’ll regret it!”

“Cute,” Flowey snorted, readying to strike... but his attention was drawn away when he finally noticed that the noise bothering him was Papyrus calling out his name. He looked around for the skeleton and realized only then that Papyrus was still flailing around near his head.

“Whoops, sorry about that, friend!” Flowey’s vine lowered Papyrus onto the ground before quickly pulling him backwards and re-ensnaring him in a thicket of tendrils.

“N-no!” Papyrus cried, struggling only for a moment before realizing the futility of his efforts. He instead looked pleadingly at Flowey and said, “Flowey, don’t hurt it! It didn’t do anything wrong!”

“But Papyrus,” Flowey said, raising one of his hands to the side of his screen in mock-indecision. No harm in entertaining his friend for a moment. “It just threatened me! Didn’t you hear it?”

“B-but,” Papyrus said, straining to pull himself up out of the throng of vines and get closer to Flowey. “You don’t have to fight! What if we talk to it? And then, I’m sure we can look back on this later, and laugh about it, once we’re all friends!”

Flowey tutted quietly. “Don’t you know Papyrus? In this world, it’s kill or be— OW!”

Flowey looked down in surprise to see the human right before him, hunting knife buried in the softer part of one of his thorny arms. “Why you little—”

As he raised the arm the human had dug into, the little devil actually jumped up, clambering up the side of the limb and using the thorns as handholds.

Flowey huffed out a laugh as he shook his arm, trying to dislodge the human. It was lucky his boughs didn’t have a great range of movement, or he’d’ve swatted it off with the humanless one. “Ha, persistent, aren’t you? Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to kill you nice and slow—HEY!”

The human, who was beginning to get on Flowey’s nerves, actually had the guts to stick its knife into the edge of his flatscreen, trying to pry it open. Flowey wasn’t used to pain, not by a long shot, so it was literally like someone was trying to crack open his head.

Finally, Flowey had a stroke of luck. Just as the human began to get some leverage, there was a spark from within Flowey’s head, and it conducted through the blade of the knife before zapping the human. It let out a yelp as it jolted from the electricity and, losing its balance, fell to the ground. It tumbled and rolled several times before coming to a stop.

“You almost got me, buddy,” Flowey said, nearly panting, “But despite everything, you’re a failure.”

Flowey concentrated for a moment, before rows and rows of unusual plants, similar in shape to the human’s hands, burst out of the ground. They deftly made a firing squad’s worth of finger guns, pointed right at the little bugger.

“Now DIE,” Flowey crowed, and as the plants took aim—

The ground surrounding the human rumbled, and out of it sprouted a towering wall of bones that stretched in one direction before making a ninety degree angle, and then again and again and again until the human was neatly enclosed in a little cube of light blue bone.

Wordlessly, Flowey turned to Papyrus, who had somehow managed to wriggle an arm free from the thicket and reach it out to box the human in. Was he trying to protect Flowey from the human? That was so sweet, but ultimately so unnecessary.

“See?” Papyrus said, a rictus of a grin on his skull. “Nobody needs to get hurt, you... you don’t have to hurt it, Flowey!”

Ah.

So _that_ was it.

Cold rage filled Flowey—along with a little bit of hurt that he viciously suppressed—and he forced his own smile onto his face. “Wow, Papyrus! You did it! You finally captured a human!”

The skeleton’s expression grew a little softer, and almost a bit prideful. “Of course the Great Papyrus would capture a human! Maybe now we can just let it—”

There was an wonderful crunching, squelching noise as Flowey’s massive fist swung down onto the cage, ignoring the annoying sting of blue magic, and caved the little ceiling in on itself so that the force of it smashed the human into a bloody, pulpy paste, dripping viscously between his claws.

Flecks of blood sprayed everywhere, even high enough to dapple the surface of his screen. He gave himself a moment to take in the sight, the sensation, and only then did he turn to beam at Papyrus, who stared in stark horror at the fantastic mess Flowey had made. “Thanks for holding it still for me, Papyrus! You’re a big help!”

He could feel Papyrus quivering in his bonds, and Flowey chuckled, extending a vine to wipe a drop of blood from Papyrus’ skull.

The skeleton flinched, and suddenly began to squirm again, free hand clawing at the vines holding him down as tears began to bead in the corner of his eyes. _Oh, come on._

Out of spite for the pathetic sight, he tightened the vines before quickly withdrawing them partway into the rocky soil, so that Papyrus was slammed into the ground. He relished the short cry of pain the skeleton gave.

“It’s nice of you to give me a hand, especially when you really hurt my feelings by siding with the human—you know, one of the jerks who stuck us all underground— instead of me, your _best friend_.”

Papyrus was looking anywhere but him, so the flower monster manipulated his vines to shift Papyrus’s head in his direction, and noted with a vicious satisfaction that his eyelights had gone out. As he quaked in terror, he immediately began to babble. “N-no, I just—I just wanted... please don’t, I—”

“Now, some people would end a friendship over something as rude as that,” Flowey said, talking over him and staring down at him with determined intent. “But I have more faith in you than you might think! I’m sure, with a little bit of work, we can _sort out your priorities._ ”

——

Papyrus’ mind was racing a mile a minute, and he could barely keep up with it in his terror. Bits and pieces of memories were coming back to him, and they were so awful and he didn’t want to think about them, but thinking about what Flowey might do to him because of how he tried to save the human—and oh god, he didn’t want to think about that either—was worse.

_A deep, isolated cave. Crystals on the ceiling like stars. A lonely, secluded mountaintop. Miles from any help._

_An ache in his core._

Papyrus jolted back into the present as Flowey lowered one of his giant hands, pressing down hard on his armor with a single blood-red claw. It quickly pierced a hole in the chest piece, cracks spreading out from the epicenter, and it was then the short work of a few vines to break off the remaining pieces of it, leaving Papyrus’ ribcage bare.

He shivered once at being exposed, and then again as Flowey began to wriggle a thin vine in between the outer side of his ribs. In and out and in and out until all of the bones were tangled up, before repeating the process on the other side. It was intensely uncomfortable to feel the bones straining to accommodate the intrusion, but he could do nothing but shift slightly in his bonds, trying hard just to not think about anything, to distance himself from the situation.

Then the vines wrapped around his ribs began to pull, retracting into the ground. It was slow, but insistent, and Papyrus gasped breathlessly as the bone and cartilage began to bend. “No no no no no no...” he whimpered, caught between the urge to sink into himself and the instinct to struggle and try to get out, out _out_.

The strain was quickly getting unbearable. After a bit of panicked internal struggle, the desire to escape won, and Papyrus twisted his trapped wrist, bearing the sharp burst of pain, to summon a short wave of bones, aiming them at the vines that were going to break his ribcage open.

The attack was so close to hitting its mark, when Flowey reached out with another vine to bat the bones away. Papyrus felt his ribs creak, the place where the cartilage connected to the sternum _burning_ , and he pleaded, “P-please, _please_ don’t do this! I-I didn’t mean to m-make you upset, I—”

Flowey’s answer to that was to give an extra hard tug, and Papyrus shrieked as with a great cracking sound, around half of his lower ribs separated from his sternum. He would’ve blacked out if there wasn’t suddenly a brief sting of healing magic running through him. Even with that small mercy, he felt like his chest was on _fire_ , he felt like he couldn’t breathe, he felt like he was going to die—

“I want you to know, Papyrus,” Flowey said, breaking through the thick haze of pain, “that you can tap out if you need to. After all, this hurts me more than it hurts you.”

Papyrus gaped up at Flowey, vision blurry with tears and jaw shuddering as he screamed, his non-existent throat running raw. When he had to gasp for breath—and that hurt, that hurt _so bad_ —he couldn’t force the words out. Flowey continued to pull, and Papyrus coughed violently, acidic magical runoff bubbling from the corner of his mouth.

With the strain building on the ribs that remained attached, Papyrus finally managed to cry out in a burst of near feral energy, “S-stop, _PLEASE_!”

And just like that, the pulling leveled out. It was _that_ easy? Papyrus let out a hysterical laugh (which just hurt his ribs all over again) before giving back into short, shallow breaths.

“So,” Flowey said, grinning down smugly at Papyrus, “Who’s your best friend?”

All Papyrus could do was stare blankly up at Flowey. Why would— _how_ could he ask him that? He’d thought they were friends... but maybe they weren’t, or maybe Flowey was mad at him and he didn’t know why... but Flowey stopped when he asked, so...

When Flowey gave a short tug at his broken ribs again, Papyrus let out a short, panicked cry before gasping out, “Y-you are!”

“I’m what?”

Papyrus gritted his teeth before—with a monumental effort—smiling weakly up at Flowey, and said, “You’re my... b-best friend, Flowey!”

Flowey gave him a soft smile. “And you’re _mine_.”

The vines twisted in his ribs loosened, but pulled inward so that Flowey could more easily reconnect them with healing magic. Nevertheless, the action caused another bolt of pain to shoot through him, and Papyrus couldn’t keep from whimpering. Still, when the healing magic began to run through his injured body, it was so much of a relief that Papyrus couldn’t help it as he let out a soft, gratified hum.

When the last of his injuries—ribs and wrist—were sealed, Papyrus sagged limply in the grasp of the vines that held him down. His eyes fell shut, and he took a few shaky breaths in and out.

“Aw, look at you,” Flowey cooed. “C’mere, friend.”

Papyrus did not quite think himself capable of moving, but that didn’t seem to matter, because with a short scooping motion, Flowey picked Papyrus up and cradled him in his boughs.

There was an uncomfortable quiet for a few moments before Flowey laughed, and Papyrus could feel it rumble through his body from his position in his arms. “It’s so weird to see how small you are now, Papyrus; it makes you look even more vulnerable than before!”

Papyrus shifted, struck once more with the urge to get away from Flowey but with not enough energy to do it. And where would he even go? If he tried to go back home, Flowey would follow him, and he didn’t know anything about the surface world, much less where he could hide.

Struck with a wave of despair, Papyrus gave into weeping, burying his skull in his hands.

Flowey sighed at the sight. “I’m not going to hurt you, silly. Y’know what? I think you deserve a reward for getting back on the right track!”

_A reward?_

Flowey smiled down at him, and patted him on the skull as gently as he could before lowering him to the ground again, back into the bed of vines.

 _Back into the bed of vines._ Papyrus surged up, finding a bit of that energy that seemed so elusive before and made a desperate effort to scramble out. He’d actually managed to get a handhold on solid ground before the fibrous tendrils wrapped around his limbs, pulling him back into the writhing mass and onto his back again. “No!” he cried, twisting in place, but it was nothing more than wasted effort.

“C’mon, Papyrus, gimme a break! I’m trying to do something nice for you!” Flowey scolded.

Papyrus found himself praying that it might be true. Nevertheless, when a vine ghosted over his still-aching ribs, he whimpered, a shudder wracking his frame.

As if in response, the vines went still, and Papyrus’ soul jumped with tentative hope. He cracked a socket open to peek up at his captor, and found Flowey staring not at him, but rather at his own clawed hands with a look of contemplation.

“Ah!” Flowey cried out suddenly, causing Papyrus to flinch. “I know what’ll work. Let’s see...” He screwed up his face, as though concentrating hard, and he reached down to press one of his claws into the dirt next to Papyrus. There was a flash of green light, and when Flowey withdrew, a small bud burst from the ground. It grew larger rapidly, sprouting light pink, wavy petals greater in size than Papyrus’ head. Then, just as fast as it bloomed, the flower’s petals wilted off, leaving only a large, green pod in the center.

Flowey plucked the pod from the stalk and stuck a claw into the top of it, puncturing a hole. He then passed the pod off to a vine next to Papyrus, which lowered it close to his face.

“Open your mouth,” Flowey said, gently shaking the pod around. Papyrus thought he heard a faint, sort of sticky-sounding _slosh_ from within. When he hesitated, glancing at it with some trepidation, Flowey pouted at him. “Friends trust each other, Papyrus! Don’t you trust me?”

Papyrus could’ve sworn Flowey had said something similar to him in the past, and he’d regretted giving into him after. But the longer he waited, the darker Flowey’s frown seemed to get, so he took a shaky breath in, closed his eyes, and opened his mouth.

“Good boy,” Flowey purred. Then, the first drop fell into Papyrus’ mouth, and his eyes shot open as he winced, almost retching: it was the most _bitter_ thing he had ever tasted. He hurriedly tried to close his jaws, but a vine whipped out from the mass, wrapped around his lower mandible, and forced it open as more of the liquid poured in.

Papyrus choked and spluttered, because while it waved in slowly, it was relentless, and he swallowed just to make it end faster. Finally, Flowey righted the pod and withdrew it, leaving Papyrus to cough and gasp. With watering eyes, he watched as Flowey brought the pod closer to himself, and regarded it curiously before opening his maw and snaking out his thorny tongue to get at the last of the goo inside.

“Ooh, I can see why you didn’t like it!” Flowey laughed, while his lower jaws gritted their teeth at the taste. “But don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll have no problem with it soon enough.”

“W-what was it?” Papyrus said, fearing the answer, and Flowey moved to tell him, but... he didn’t manage to catch it, as he was immediately hit with a sudden sense of light-headedness. He blinked rapidly as he tried to shake it off, but soon his sockets drifted half-shut of their own accord. He took in a deep shuddering breath, and it felt like the air had turned to molasses. And then...

And then he felt _good_. He felt relaxed, and a bit sleepy, and compared to everything else he’d felt that day, it was just... amazing.

He heard Flowey laughing, but it sounded like it was coming from much farther away then he’d been before, echoing through the long chamber of his less-than-focused consciousness.

He almost didn’t notice when a few vines latched onto his shoulder blades and began to gently rub. But when he did, he didn’t mind: it felt nice, like a massage. Just light strokes, kneading the last of the tension out of his bones.

He’d almost fallen asleep when a tendril uncoiled from the mass and began to play with his ribs. Papyrus shivered and fidgeted in place a bit, expecting pain, but while the touching didn’t stop, it didn’t hurt, either; whatever Flowey had given him seemed to have numbed the ache away, which was fine by Papyrus. Eventually, he grew used to it, his thoughts slowing back down again.

It almost felt good. As the vines caressed him, he felt his cheekbones heating up ever so slightly: Papyrus hadn’t known that his ribs were sensitive in this way. Still, in the very back of his mind, there was a little voice that told him that he should be embarrassed. He didn’t really feel embarrassed though, he just felt slow and calm.

Or at least, he did until another vine curled around his backbone. Then he let out a rather undignified gasp, and he curled in on himself, instinctively trying to hide his face in his hands.

“Papyrus,” Flowey said, playfully dragging out the vowels in his name, “Don’t be shy!” Another two vines grew upward to curl around his hands, holding them gently but also pulling them away from his face. “I want to see your face, friend!”

“B-but,” Papyrus murmured, but was unable to finish the thought when the vine cinched around his spine began to quickly stroke up and down. It was a very simple action, yet Papyrus already felt overwhelmed. It were as though reality was moving at two different speeds: he was slow, but everything else seemed too fast. On a particularly hard squeeze, a little moan bubbled out of him.

The little voice was talking to him, trying to get him to remember something, but he wanted nothing more than to block it out. None of those flashbacks had brought him anything but distress, and at least for the moment, he felt alright.

He sucked in a breath when the tendril reached the base of his spine and loosened to rub against the upper crest of his pelvis. _What? Where did the rest of my battle body go?_ He didn’t remember taking off the bottom half, but even with his mind made of syrup, it was fairly easy to guess how it happened.

“No, Flowey, no...” he said, trying to focus his eyes on his friend. He blinked blearily, looking up and then jumping a bit when he noticed that Flowey’s screen was a _lot_ closer to him than it had been before. Now it hovered almost directly over him, and Papyrus tugged at the vines holding his hands, trying sluggishly and futilely to get some distance between the two of them.

“Just relax, Papyrus. I’m not gonna hurt you this time!” Flowey said cheerfully.

 _I don’t believe you,_ said the little voice in his head, but Papyrus knew better than to verbalize that particular thought.

There was a rustling sound as one of Flowey’s enormous arms shifted closer to him, and as out of it as Papyrus was, he still yelped when the flower monster drew one of his claws over the front of his pelvis. It was light enough that it didn’t hurt, but it was still a touch to the most sensitive part of his body, and he whined, no longer sure of whether or not he wanted to get closer or farther away.

As Papyrus was beginning to learn, what he wanted was irrelevant: inevitably, Flowey gently began to push his claw into the center hole of his pelvis, and oh _god_ , now Papyrus _really_ felt overwhelmed.

It was too much, too big. Even with his senses dulled, even though he could only feel it as a vaguely pleasant pressure, he was panting hard by the time the large thorn was fully seated in his pelvic girdle. And that was _before_ Flowey started to slowly thrust it in and out.

Papyrus gave a high-pitched whine as the first movements started, the touch igniting a fire inside him that felt familiar in the worst way possible. Something that didn’t feel bad, but didn’t feel good either.

He asked himself if he should be struggling harder, but between whatever was slowing his mind and the way that the thrusts were making his bones turn to jelly, he could do nothing more than quake in Flowey’s grasp.

Flowey suddenly pushed his claw in a beat faster than before, and Papyrus let out a long moan at the sensation. It was getting harder and harder to fight off the feelings that were taking him over. Maybe it would be easier to just...

A deep thrust had the tip of Flowey’s claw scrape against the bone at the back of his pelvis, and with a gasp, suddenly Papyrus felt _awake_. “No no no no,” he whimpered, the dull throbbing in his pelvis clueing him into the fact that were he not currently subdued, it would’ve burned, would’ve _hurt_.

“Oops,” Flowey chuckled. “That’s what I get for trying to be gentle, I guess.” Papryrus choked on his breath as the thrusts suddenly got faster and harder. “Don’t know why I bother.”

“P-please...” Papyrus begged, but Flowey seemed to be too occupied with staring at the way Papyrus’ hips rolled with the push and pull of his claw to care about it. His whole body was rattling from the force of it.

Finally, with an unexpected twist of the flower monster’s finger, Papyrus felt his body lighting up, and he shook and shuddered as his mind finally—mercifully—went blank.

When he came to, Flowey was cradling Papyrus against him once more. He was slowly coming out of whatever haze he’d been in, but very reluctantly: the more he woke up, the more sensitive and pained his body felt. He looked up to see Flowey staring down fondly at him. “...why?” he found himself asking once more.

Flowey laughed before tenderly murmuring, “I wanted it to be more personal this time,” and while a small part of Papyrus was flattered, the little amount of cognizance he could muster was telling him that it was indeed very personal, and not something that friends did to each other.

The flower monster held him for a few more minutes before finally leaning down and depositing him back into the bed of vines, which seemed to be his go-to place to put Papyrus whenever he got tired of him.

Papyrus wanted to be surprised at the negativity of that particular thought, but he was already starting to get used to it.

“Oh!” Flowey suddenly exclaimed, and Papyrus jolted in fear. “I forgot about this!” Papyrus lifted his head to see what Flowey was talking about, and finally noticed a peach-colored SOUL hovering above the large red stain that colored the edge of the mountain top.

 _Oh god._ Another thing Papyrus didn’t want to think about. Still, he watched as Flowey scooped up the SOUL and held it to his center. There was a flash of light, but a few seconds went by where Flowey was just silent and still, seemingly waiting for something.

Then, there was the faintest _pop_ , and Flowey absorbed the SOUL. To Papyrus’ surprise, nothing changed about Flowey’s appearance, and it was only because he was staring so carefully that he noticed that, just behind Flowey’s back, there was a barely-noticeable orange, heart-shaped glimmer.

Papyrus barely had enough time to realize what it was before it drifted down to the ground, flickered, and disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this was a long chapter. I debated breaking it into two parts, buuuut I wanted to get this all out.
> 
> Shoutout to the folks who have been beta-ing this story so far: [snurgle](https://archiveofourown.org/users/snurgle/pseuds/snurgle) and [SleepySkeleton](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepySkeleton/pseuds/SleepySkeleton)!
> 
> Oh yeah and shout out to whatever NSA agent was tracking my google searches for this chapter's research.


	4. Chapter 3 1/2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _There would be time for celebrations later. Right now, filled with the euphoria of attaining a new SOUL, all he wanted to do was get_ more.

Flowey sighed, not sure himself whether it was out of satisfaction or disappointment, and lowered his massive vine-arms to the ground with a rumbling thud. That human SOUL hadn’t changed his power level by much, and it _should’ve_ been stronger than the other ones he had. Still, a SOUL was a SOUL. He’d successfully managed to kill another human, all by himself!

Well, maybe not _quite_ all by himself. Papyrus was indeed turning out to be useful, even if it wasn’t in a way either of them had intended. The thought made Flowey laugh out loud; dear, stupid Papyrus, somehow turning out to be valuable in more ways than one!

And what ways he was useful, indeed! Magical abilities aside, their little romp had been quite a bit of fun for Flowey. Back in the runs where he’d gotten his kicks by fucking with Papyrus—or just plain fucking, he supposed—there hadn’t really been much for him to get out of it. The barest hint of anticipation, maybe, but only for what new outcomes there might be.

Now, with seven SOULs to his name, he could _feel_ again. Excitement, amusement, endearment. Not to mention, as he was claw-deep in his favorite toy, he felt certain.. physical feelings that had been entirely new to him. The heat in his face, and an ache inside his core (and hadn’t _that_ been a surprise)... he’d certainly have to experiment with the capabilities of his new body.

But there would be time for that later. Right now, filled with the euphoria of attaining a new SOUL, all he wanted to do was get _more_.

He turned to Papyrus, who lay shivering and curled up in the patch of vines with his sockets closed, and weighed the benefits of taking the skeleton with him against the risks. Sure, he could use the additional firepower, but it would take an awful lot of... convincing to make him lift a bony hand to harm another living being.

He’d do that later. Right now, he figured he could more or less take whatever puny humans lived in the city; they were bound to be comfortable in their safe, domestic lives, and therefore unprepared for the type of havoc he could wreak.

“Alright, Papyrus, you stay here and rest up! I think I’m gonna go pay the town a visit.”

Papyrus didn’t give any indication that he was listening, and for a moment, Flowey wondered if he was even conscious.

“Hey, bonehead!” Flowey taunted playfully, using his vines to jostle Papyrus. Papyrus let out a whimper at the sudden movement, and peeked an eye open. Ah, so he _was_ awake. “Behave while I’m gone, okay?”

Papyrus clenched his jaw and gave a short nod. _Good enough_ , Flowey decided.

He glanced in the direction of the city. He supposed that he wouldn’t be able to catch them too off guard: they’d be able to see him coming from miles away. But that was fine. It wouldn’t be as satisfying if they went down without a fight, anyway.

——

When Papyrus could no longer feel the vibrations of Flowey’s lurching descent, he let out a soft groan of discomfort. With the drug Flowey gave him wearing off, he could feel the ache in his ribs again. Even though it had dulled a bit over time, there was now a much stronger, sharper pain in his pelvis.

And above all of that, Papyrus had a nagging feeling that if... whatever that was, was Flowey being kind... he _really_ didn’t want to see Flowey at his worst.

He needed to get out of here, but even flexing his legs exacerbated the extreme discomfort in his lower half. If he tried to hack his way out of the vines with some bone attacks, he didn’t think he’d be able to just walk away.

And now Flowey was off intending to do horrible things to the poor humans in the city, while Papyrus lay helpless on the mountain top, too far away to be able to warn them in time.

He started to weep, feeling an a desolation he’d never known before ( _you_ do _know it_ , insisted the little voice in his head). He blinked open his eyes for a moment, just by chance, and then started; he could’ve sworn he’d seen a brief bit of movement on the other side of the peak.

He stared hard, and was rewarded for his vigilance as the orange SOUL suddenly flickered into view again. It was fully visible now, and... it was slowly drifting toward him.

Papyrus flinched in his bonds. His last experience with a human SOUL had been painful and terrifying, and he wanted nothing to do with this one. Still, he could do nothing as it hovered toward him, drawn like a moth to a lamp.

It stopped beside him, and floated up to rest just over his chest cavity. He shut his eyes again, fearing the worst...

And then, there was the soft sensation of _healing_ magic.

He looked up in shock at the the small orange heart, and realized that every few seconds, it would pulse and release a small, glowing green flower that would drift into Papyrus’ SOUL and restore a few HP.

For a few moments he couldn’t even speak, overcome with gratitude for the soothing energy that radiated through him and healed his injuries, both old and new, completely. It suddenly occurred to Papyrus that either Flowey wasn’t that good at healing, or he had just decided not to completely heal Papyrus after hurting his ribs.

Neither was really a positive outlook.

When Papyrus felt his HP return to its normal level, he gazed up at the little heart, still shining brightly above him. Even after dying at the hands of monsters, the human’s SOUL was still compassionate to him.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

The SOUL shone bright for a moment, almost as though acknowledging his thanks, and then floated inside Papyrus’ chest cavity.

Papyrus stiffened for a moment, but it didn’t get absorbed like he thought it would. It just rested there for a moment. Then, he felt more than heard, “ _Stay bold. Be brave._ ”

And then the SOUL disappeared from sight once more.

There was a flash of light from the city in the distance, and Papyrus could swear that even from here, that there had been an explosion of some kind. Flowey was out there, hurting humans, and Papyrus could do nothing about it.

But he was thankful that he was too far away to hear the screams, and that he wasn’t alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, I wasn't going to post a chapter this week. It's a busy time of year, and I wasn't sure if everyone had gotten a chance to read chapter 3, so I wanted to give them some time to catch up. Buuuuuut I wanted to cap off last chapter's experience with a short little mini-epilogue before the New Year rang in. Tune in same time next week, and (if you're celebrating it) I wish you a happy New Years!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _A shadow loomed over him, and Papyrus looked up slowly to take in the fearsome sight of his captor (friend?), and..._
> 
>  
> 
>  _... and he could tell from a glance that Flowey was_ badly _injured._

Papyrus woke up—unsure of when he had even fallen asleep—to the dragging, thudding sound that preempted Flowey’s arrival. He shifted away from the noise instinctively, and was surprised when the tendrils trapping him snapped clean off their stalks.

The entire bed of vines had practically withered to husks, leaving him laying in a dry, gritty patch of dead plants, some of which disintegrated as he moved. He scrambled out of the pile and, panicking at the sensation of dust on him, hurriedly scrubbed at his bones to get rid of it.

He didn’t have much time. Flowey would reach the mountain top any minute, and he could see nowhere to hide, except maybe behind the large sign posted near the edge. Or would it be easier to see if there was another way down the mountain from the other side of the peak?

 _You’re leaving your friend behind?_ Papyrus’ conscience admonished, and he paused for a moment. _Was_ Flowey his friend? He was unpredictable, seemed to run hot or cold on the slightest of whims, and he could be dangerous when angry, but... everyone had their off days, right?

He felt a slight warmth in his chest cavity, and Papyrus remembered with sudden clarity that he had a new friend with him now. It had told him to be brave, but what did that even mean in his situation? Be brave enough to leave, no matter what consequences might follow? And oh, there were sure to be _many_ consequences.

As though reading his thoughts, a shadow loomed over him, and Papyrus looked up slowly to take in the fearsome sight of his captor (friend?), and...

... and he could tell from a glance that Flowey was _badly_ injured. His massive vine arms were copiously leaking sap from various puncture marks, and had scorched patches in other areas. Some of the fleshy tubes above his screen were severed and dripping a vile-looking fluid. His maw was missing a tooth, and his screen was spiderwebbed with cracks in one of the corners.

With a sudden conviction, Papyrus was sure that in his situation, bravery meant doing the right thing, even when you were scared.

——

Saying that his invasion went poorly would be an understatement.

Flowey had been so sure that the humans in the city would be unprepared for him, would cower in his presence, would be easy kills, and so on and so forth. But since (as with his earlier prediction) they had seen him coming, they had had enough time to set up some rudimentary defenses.

Entering the city had been like stepping on an anthill. The humans had some sort of equivalent of a royal guard, and they had all been waiting for him. They were numerous, and despite their lack of magic, they wielded various strange weapons that Flowey only vaguely remembered from his first venture onto the surface, oh so long ago.

He had been able to kill _some_ of them, of course. He wasn’t _that_ weak. But for some strange and infuriating reason, he hadn’t been able to absorb their SOULs. He had really been hoping that the power boost from those would’ve been enough to gain the upper hand, but clearly everything was determined to go wrong today.

Things quickly went from bad to worse. Reinforcements arrived, and seeming to have taken a leaf out of his book, they’d brought flamethrowers with them. Flowey had thought he was too hydrated to burn, but that had been before they had dumped some kind of flammable liquid on him from the rooftops.

Eventually, he had been forced to retreat. The journey back had been wearying, to say the least. And when he had finally ascended to the peak, what did he see? Papyrus had somehow gotten loose.

“You’re... you’re hurt,” the skeleton said, slowly advancing on Flowey.

He bristled with indignation. “Don’t get any ideas,” he hissed.

Papyrus stumbled back with a confused expression as Flowey pulled himself further onto the cliff face, his vines lashing agitatedly through the air. “I just—I just want to help, you look really—”

“ _Quiet._ ” Flowey hissed, stomping one of his massive paws on the ground. Papyrus tripped and fell backwards onto his rear, one hand raised in defense. In any other situation, it would’ve been cute. _As though he could actually stand a chance against me._ But right now, seeing Papyrus cower was boring, and his concern toward him was sickening. “You really care, huh? I bet you were _so_ worried. And what good did that do me?” Flowey spat.

“Flowey,” Papyrus said, daring to sound hopeful despite a slight tremor in his tone, “I’m sorry you got hurt, and I want to help, let me help you—”

“Oh, you ‘want to help me,’” Flowey mocked, imitating Papyrus’ voice back at him. With a wide, manic grin he didn’t quite feel, he switched back to his own voice and said, “If you really want to help me, buddy, next time you’ll come down there with me and help me kill those stupid humans.”

Papyrus blanched. “B-but...”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Flowey scoffed. “Wow, Papyrus, for someone who’s all bone, you really need to _grow a spine_. Your silly ‘morals’? They don’t matter out here. Never did, and never will. It’s kill or be killed, and you better pick a side if you want me to bother keeping you alive, _friend_.”

Flowey stood there, fuming, as Papyrus’ jawbone trembled and tears started dripping out of his sockets. Then he looked away from the skeleton with a huff, and turned around to sit toward the edge of the cliff, making a show of gazing down at the city in the distance.

As he came down from his anger and adrenaline, some of the pain from his injuries began to flow back into his focus. His jaw ached from the loss of the tooth, his various lacerations stung, and he had a throbbing headache. Distracted, Flowey held one of his hands over the cracks on his screen, and concentrated hard.

After a few minutes, Flowey felt his HP begin to trickle back toward higher numbers, but the pain mostly remained. He hated how healing magic was compassion-based. Even with his newfound emotions, he still sucked at it, because when it came down to it...

Well, he’d spent so long without feeling anything; he’d embraced the power of LOVE over actual love, so when he’d learned how to heal, it was—just like anything else he could feel—only a shadow of what it could’ve been.

He sat there for a long while, contemplating, and was surprised when he found himself tuning back into the sound of Papyrus crying behind him. He was still going at it, huh? He spared a glance back at the skeleton, who was sitting hunched with his arms around his knees, sniffling and hiccuping quietly.

He finally let out a sigh, and said, “Well, I guess you can come and heal me, if you want to so bad.” If it’d get Papyrus to stop moping and do something useful instead.

Papyrus looked up at that, trying to wipe some of the tear streaks from his cheekbones. “Do you w-want me to?” He almost looked hopeful again.

Flowey shrugged his massive shoulders. “It’s not whether I want it or not, silly. Like you said, I’m pretty hurt. I _could_ just sit here and waste away, but something tells me that a friend like you wouldn’t let that happen.”

Slowly, Papyrus stood up, and shakily made his way over to Flowey’s side. He stayed there for a moment, looking him up and down before placing his phalanges on Flowey’s arm. “I don’t know if I can heal all of it, but I can take away some of the pain.”

_That’s all you can hope to do, I suppose._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the lack of posting, I've been really struggling with motivation. Hopefully updates will be more regular from now on.
> 
> How do you like the story so far? Whether it's praise or criticism, let me know down in the comments, it really does help.


	6. A PSA!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An update for my readers.

Hey there.

It’s been a while, huh?

I wanted to apologize for taking so long on this story. I know you’ve been waiting for updates.

The long and short of it: I’m not giving up on _The Breaking Point_. But I also won’t be posting any more of it until I’ve written it to completion. I hope you’re not disappointed.

I look forward to the days when I’ve finished this and can start putting it out into the world again. Until then, keep on being awesome!


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